Sports

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: Cancels Vancouver Olympic Trip

by Sudha Krishna | February 25, 2010 at 03:31 pm

1560 views | 1 Recommendation | 6 comments

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has canceled a planned trip to Vancouver to attend the Closing ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The announcement comes as a surprise because Russia is the next host of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, and Medvedev had planned to attend.

No official reason for the cancellation was given, but Olympic protocol does not require the president of the next host country to attend the closing ceremonies.

Putin Critical of Men's Figuring Skating Results

One thing is clear is that Russian has not done well at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. The Russian Men's Hockey team lost to Canada, when many expected them to compete for Gold on Sunday prior to the Closing Ceremonies.

Russia has faced doping charges fro the International Olympic Committee and the speculation is that Dmitry Medvedev is perhaps a bit piqued about the way Russian and Russian athletes have been treated during the Vancouver Olympic Games. Then their was the storm over Evgeny Plashenko receiving the silver and not the gold medal during the men's figure skating program.

Recent editorials in Pravada illustrate, perhaps, the Russian sentiment

As Plushenko explains, “I did a great short program but did not get the marks I deserved. When I asked why, they told me I was skating early and they had to retain top marks for the last group…Then in the free program, I was the last to skate, did everything clean and still didn’t get the marks”.

Everybody who knows anything about Olympic skating, Winter Olympic sports and international politics will infer from the pitiful and dangerous conditions provided by the Canadian authorities, which already caused one death, that Vancouver is mutton dressed as lamb. Take off the outer veneer and the stench is horrific.

It is a surprise that any Russian athlete would wish to remain in that sort of environment for a second longer.

If a politician can score domestic political points by cancelling a foreign trip, Russian or not, it may well explain why Russian President Dmitry Medvedev won't be coming to Vancouver

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marko65 (not verified)

at 18:34 on February 25th, 2010

Nice to see that the Russians are as big a babies as the Soviets were.

Ekaterina (not verified)

at 01:46 on February 27th, 2010

F#ck you marko65! Nice to see how your country going down!

al-Karim Amarsi (not verified)

at 15:41 on February 28th, 2010

"how your country going down!" ? Ekaterina did you watch the hockey final?

Irenee (not verified)

at 21:54 on February 28th, 2010

Not very good sports, the Russians. Sportmanship is the heart of the Olympic spirit and they probably never deserved the medal if they cannot be good sportsmen and deal with their loss gracefully. It's unfortunate they have tarnished their own legacy, after having been so successful in past Olympics, by acting so poorly in 2010. The President of Russia should be setting an example, this is indeed a very poor showing of character.

ShyCookie (not verified)

at 12:45 on March 1st, 2010

Poorly written article with a number of grammatical errors. This really discredits the author.

Tamy (not verified)

at 10:52 on March 10th, 2010

Hey, asshole (marko65), watch who you call babies. Based on your comments, sounds like you’re a big baby yourself, because no educated, grown-up man will call a Russian nation, who has endured so much throughout their history & still came out strong, a nation of “big babies”. You, idiot, need to read more history books, of course, if you can read. I hope one day, one of those "babies" kick your ass so bad, that you won't be capable of typing your stupid comments at all!